Accenture: Asia-Pacific Banks Should Develop Blockchain Strategies

Asia-Pacific (APAC) banks, credit card firms and startups can be expected to increasingly focus on blockchain technology in the coming years, according to a new report by Accenture.

The management consulting services firm, which has recently been assertive in voicing its opinions on the emerging technology, stated that this trend would coincide with the need for FinTech firms to streamline operations and comply with regulations.

The prediction formed part of a new report that projects FinTech investments in the Asia-Pacific region will “quadruple” in 2015, rising to $3.5bn this year, up from $880m in 2014.

“As a stand-alone technology, blockchain could help banks, credit card companies and clearinghouses collaborate to create safer, faster accounting and optimize capital use by reducing counterparty risk and transaction latency,” the report reads.

Accenture notes local blockchain services firms such as BitX and Bitspark, the latter of which was previously accepted into an Accenture accelerator, as examples of startups working to bring products and services based on the technology to APAC merchant services and remittance markets.

In particular, the firm notes that it believes future blockchain products and services can be expected focus on the securitization of physical assets as part of a migration of the technology to back-office use cases.

“Distributed ledger technologies might soon play a role in the entire lifecycle of a trade, including clearing and settlement, collateral management, payments and reconciliation,” the report continued, adding:

”We also expect distributed ledger technologies to become a critical part of the backbone of future capital markets.”

In the face of this transition, Accenture ended the report by advising banks to develop strategies for the technology as it could be expected to create new opportunities for startups.

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